The Family of God
by Darrell W. Johns
Atlanta West Pentecostal Church (Lithia Springs, GA)
Kind: sermon
Scripture: Ephesians 2:19, Genesis 2:18, Genesis 2:23-24, Genesis 12:3, Genesis 1:27-28, Psalms 127:3, 1 Corinthians 15:45, Ephesians 5:32, 2 Corinthians 6:18, 1 Timothy 5:1-2, John 4, Acts 10, Matthew 22:37-40, Exodus 20:12, Ephesians 6:2-3, Exodus 20:13, Exodus 20:14, Exodus 20:15, Exodus 20:16, Exodus 20:17, Ephesians 3:14-15, Ephesians 1:5, Ephesians 3:6, Acts 2:38-39

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/darrell-w-johns--the-family-of-god
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

------------------------------------------------------------
ephesians 2 19. now therefore you are no more strangers and foreigners but fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of god the new living translation says you're members of god's family so i want to talk to you today about the family of god please be seated and thank you for worshiping thank you for standing modern dictionaries describe the family as a basic unit of society traditionally consisting of two parents raising their children i'm glad that modern dictionaries still see the family like that we know that there are single-parent homes and in our culture a family can be a lot of different things some the bible would approve of and some perhaps not not perhaps i'm not we're well aware of alternate forms of the family that exists in our culture and our job as a church is not to condemn them the bible said they're condemned already but that we could give hope in life but as a pastor and as a church it is important that we remind and we instruct what the bible says about any number of subjects whatever the bible says is what we should say so i want to talk about the biblical perspective of family today god created a man and named him adam from that man adam god made a woman she became his wife they were not business partners in the gardening business they were husband and wife genesis 2 18 said that it is not good for man to be alone i'll make a help me for him a helper comparable for him he put adam to sleep i don't know if there was anesthesia involved he did a surgical procedure on adam removed a rib out of that rib he made a woman she is a woman she has been taken out of man the bible said that the woman was made for man not the woman for the man but every other man besides adam was born of a woman so god made there an interdependence to exist between the husband and the wife when the lord brought the woman to adam he said this is now bone of my bones flesh of my flesh she shall be called woman because she was taken out of men and then the bible said therefore because of this relationship one man one woman brought together in marriage therefore shall a man leave his father and mother shall cleave into his wife and they shall be one flesh jesus quoted this verse in the days of his ministry a husband and a wife form a marriage adam named his wife eve because she was the mother of all living adam and eve then had children is this basic enough for you they had children first kane and then abel their marriage their union made them a marriage rather and then children made them a family husband wife two boys god through them formed the first family it's fascinating to me that when god called abram abraham he told him in genesis 12 i will bless them that bless thee i will curse them that curse thee and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed later god said in your seed speaking of jesus all the families of the earth shall be blessed god could have said churches our countries are individuals but god told abraham that in your family i am going to bless every family and the earth and we know that is the heritage of abraham the father of the faithful but especially because of in his lineage there was jesus christ amen husbands and wives fulfill god's plan to populate the earth genesis 1 27. so god created man in his own image in his own image in the image of god created he him male and female created he him that's how god did this he created them pardon me and god blessed them and god said unto them be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea over the fowl of the air and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth now the bible tells us that god made humans a little lower than the angels but then he crowned us with glory and honor he set us over the work of his hands what an amazing thing god did when he made a man a woman they formed a family god told them to populate the earth and god gave them authority the bible tells us in psalm 127 that children are a heritage of the lord and the fruit of the womb is his reward in the bible there were numerous families who were experienced barrenness the wife could not have children we recognize that as a medical condition and we pray for people to have children it is a heritage of the of the lord now god's plan just in case you missed it it involved one man it involved one woman polygamy did not come in existence from the beginning it was later it was not god's blessing they were united this one man and this one woman in a monogamous relationship for life till death parted them children were born in the home and then generations of godly people were to fill the earth through malachi god told israel that the reason god gave a seed children was that they would raise up a godly seed we should not become worse and worse because of our faith each succeeding generation should become better and better that happens when every generation is sincere in their faith and passes on a pure religion and not religion in name only now what god ordained in the natural is illustrative of something superior that he creates in the spiritual adam is a living soul but jesus in first corinthians 15 is called the last adam he has made a quickening spirit it's an amazing thing that what god did in the natural he also does in the spiritual the relationship of a husband and wife is likened to the relationship between christ and his church husbands love your wives as christ also loved the church and gave himself for it he said this is a great mystery he's talking about family relationships in ephesians 5. in fact you should read ephesians again through the lens of family and how much he talks about family paul does in ephesians 5. but speaking of husband and wife paul says this is a great mystery but i speak concerning christ in the church and then we learn that god is our heavenly father second corinthians 6 18 tells us that he will be a father unto you and you shall be my sons and daughters saith the lord almighty we have these same familial relationships demonstrated in the church in fact paul calls jerusalem which is above a reference to the church the mother of us all you were brought into this body this family by the mighty god who came to this earth who purchased your salvation with his blood but he didn't just put you in a cold institution called the called out ones the church he puts you in his body he puts you now in his family this is all descriptions of the church we are the family of god and what we learn in family teaches us how to function in life paul wrote to timothy whose dad was an unbeliever for everything we know and he said timothy i want to talk to you about relationships in the church you're a young minister don't rebuke an older man but entreat him as a father treat the younger men like they were brothers maybe even better if you have brothers i have two brothers older women paul said timothy i want you to treat them like a mother timothy had a mother named eunice and you knew how to treat your mother you were taught that you should be taught that right and so he said timothy i want you to treat older women in the church like they were your mom and younger women i want you to treat them like sisters and then he tells timothy with purity treat them like they were your sister and treat them with a morally pure relationship now in the bible there is this idea of the household the household of faith the household of god paul says this in ephesians 2 19 you're no longer strangers you're not foreigners you are fellow citizens now that would be of a country right with the saints but more than just part of this land this country which is now spiritually the church you are now a part of the household of god the family of god but household had a little broader meaning than just a husband wife and three kids it had this entire family relationship in the greek language it's the oychas your sphere of influence and it is used in the old testament and also in the new testament in the old there was a patriarch the oldest male figure when he was alive and it would be a grandfather or a great grandfather and this would be a clan a a family it would be a household extended beyond that immediate family and the church is called the household of god it is a family of families where god is our father amen the lord said of abraham i'm going to reveal to him what i'm going to do to sodom and gomorrah because i know abraham he's going to command or teach his children after him to live for me like he lives for me in the old testament when the paschal lamb the sacrificial lamb was eaten on the passover it was eaten in a household and if the lamb was too much for your little family you could share it with someone else amen there's a great sermon in that by the way if you found out that the lamb of god that jesus is more than enough for you then you should share him with another family share the lamb [Applause] amen human life is not a conglomerate of individuals the family unit is central to what god created in the beginning he had the church in mind and the church would be like a family but he created the family first it was the unit of civilization that would allow there to be structure and discipline and understanding and relationships that would afford you the ability to function in all of life the family is the foundational relationship for society and the church is the family of god in the new testament when a family head was converted typically the entire family came in this was followed by the nobleman that jesus saved and this whole house believed in john chapter 5. i love to preach about cornelius in acts chapter 10. he called his entire household together this may have meant kids and grandkids but certainly all of his family members but also people who worked for him maybe many of the soldiers he was a captain over a hundred men and when the holy spirit fell on them in acts chapter 10 it fell on all them that heard the word the entire household was filled with the gift of the holy ghost at the same time that is pretty exciting lydia was a lady businesswoman and when the lord opened her house the bible said she was baptized and her household everybody that was in the sphere of her relational influence was also baptized and came in to the church crispus was a chief ruler of the jewish synagogue and when he believed his whole house believed and came into the church the apostle paul said that i baptized the household of stephanus all of them came into the church together that's why when jesus called disciples they were brothers they were family and in the church there is no greater revival than for god to give a family revival amen for husbands and wives and children and aunts and uncles mothers and fathers for an entire family to come into the church that is a good way for revival to happen that's the way it happened in the bible the family of god now family is so important to god that when he gave the ten commandments to moses on mount sinai these commandments related to our relationship with god the first four commandments called the first table of the law that but god also was concerned about our human relationships our relationships with other people so the second table of the law commandments 6-10 have to do primarily with our interactions and relationships with other people amen this is really important to understand the first four commandments thou shalt have no other gods before me thou shalt not make him to thee any graven image god is a spirit the bible says they that worship him must worship him in spirit and truth we never make an image and make that image of god right he established that in exodus 20 commandment 3 thou shalt not take the name of the lord thy god in vain you are to honor and reverence god commandment 4 remember the sabbath day to keep it holy now in the second table of the law commandments 5-10 these commandments i told you have to do with our relationships with other people now jesus summarized the ten commandments in matthew chapter 22 when a lawyer a scribe a theologian asked him what is the great commandment of the law and jesus said thou shalt love the lord thy god with all thy heart with all thy soul with all thy might this mind he said this is the first and great commandment and the second is like unto it thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself then jesus said in matthew 22 40 on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets everything that god wanted to accomplish in us hang on these two commandments love god first commandments one through four love your neighbor as yourself commandments six through ten and everything god wants to do in you has to do with loving god first and loving people like you love yourself [Applause] the fifth commandment is all about family exodus 20 12 honor thy father and thy mother that thy days may be long upon the land which the lord thy god giveth thee there are curses in the bible to children who dishonor their parents jesus disciplined verbally people who said that they could not take care of their parents because they had dedicated the offering to god they called it corban it was not what was really true paul told us in ephesians 6 ephesians is about family right honor thy father and thy mother which is the first commandment with the promise there's a promise that if you will keep this commandment now there are inherent promises in keeping the commandments of god but this one has a promise named that god will give you a long life god is wise and he knows that if a family functions successfully there has to be honor there there must be parents who don't provoke their children to anger and there must be children who honor their parents so i want to say today that if you have dishonored your parents you need to apologize and you need to make it right if you're a parent who has provoked your children to anger or wrath said two different ways ephesians and colossians then you need to apologize and make it right i received the holy ghost when i was eight i began to try to walk with the lord when i was 16 in a serious manner but when i was in bible college a good friend held the mirror up for me so that i could see that i had spoken to my dad in disrespectful ways unintentionally my strong type a personality i wrote my dad a long letter apologizing to him i apologize to him in person because i had spoken to him in a disrespectful way i was dishonoring my dad and didn't even realize that i was my dad wrote me back telling me he wished he'd have been a better dad i thought you're the greatest dad i could ever ask for but i'm just telling you that you need to take seriously these family relationships and honor your father and mother and whatever you've got to do to make it right as much as you can control it make it right [Applause] as much as in you is the bible says live at peace with all men you cannot control the other side of the equation you can only do your best to honor your father and your mother this is the first commandment with promise and god makes it first in that second table of the law commandment 6 exodus 20 13 thou shalt not kill this commandment is not family specific but the first murder in the bible this means in the hebrew thou shalt not murder the first murder in the bible was a fratricide a brother killing his brother another family member so well this is not specifically family focused it is family related and murder begins with hatred resentment jealousy infighting favoritism paul's here to say there's a lot of dysfunctional families in the bible and a lot of it has to do with fathers or mothers who had a favorite and treated one child better than the others and others worse than the favorite that's not a good practice in parenting and that's for free seventh commandment exodus 20 14 thou shalt not commit adultery this specific commandment is related to family in the bible there's the word pernia in the new testament fornication that relates to all sexual immorality i believe this commandment thou shalt not commit adultery has a broad base to all sexual immorality but specifically the lord says he is protecting the family he's protecting husbands and wives he's trying to tell us that the future of the family has to be fidelity there must be faithfulness if the family is to last i don't need to tell you what you see all around you every day that they're fractured dysfunctional and disintegrated families because of fathers or mothers that have walked out of that home amen adultery can be forgiven by god and a spouse but it is often the final blow to a failing marriage thou shalt not commit adultery amen the lord wanted to protect a home he's telling us in his commandment that children should be born to a man and a woman who are bound together in a marriage in a lifelong commitment and if the marriage is protected by fidelity then the children will have a covering over them i thank god for our survivors of divorce and our single parents who are amazing people that you do it all by yourself thank god for you i commend you but you know how much you wish your family was whole and there was fidelity and it was the original marriage that is god's plan we understand we live in a fallen world and we act redemptively to bring people back to god's ideal the lord doesn't tell us what to do when we're 10 steps below his ideal if we fail we repent and get back to god's ideal as much as possible but i just want to tell you right now these commandments protect the family stands guard over the institution of marriage and over the family jesus took this commandment to a higher level because as we all know physical adultery begins with lust it begins with attraction and jesus taught that we should not only commit the act of adultery but neither should we look on a man or woman to commit adultery with them in our heart that it begins in attitudes in our spirit and if we protect our marriages in our head and in our heart that we will protect him physically as well amen thou shalt not commit adultery a commandment for the family the eighth commandment verse 15 exodus 20 thou shalt not steal now this teaches the respect for personal property if it's not yours don't take it thou shalt not steal and there's a lot of ways people steal that's not my focus today this is not family specific but it certainly applies to family people steal things within their family all the time if a family member has ever taken anything from you maybe they said they borrowed it but with intent to keep it they've broken this commandment thou shalt not steal and if you have ever taken something from anyone else stolen it then you need to repent but you need to return it you can't just return repent and keep it you've got to make it right with god and that person you've got to restore it amen that is the eighth commandment and it certainly applies to the family the ninth commandment exodus 20 16 thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor this now is in community it's not talking about a person a thousand miles away but people who live in your neighborhood it could be a person at church to not speak against them it is a sin to blaspheme god it is a sin to speak wrongfully against another person husband wife child parent neighbor is this commandment we live in community and a community of families and that commandment protects family communities the 10th commandment exodus 2017 i'll read the first phrase for now in the new king james you shall not covet we'll stop there for right now the other nine commandments have to do with specific acts of sin but covetousness is an act of the heart it is something that begins on the inside it's not taking something it's wanting to take it it's not doing it is wanting to do what god prohibits it deals not just with an act but with an attitude with an intent and thought of the heart amen it is to help us regulate our desires it is to teach contentment in our lives and in our families that we don't want our neighbors house wife livestock belongings that we're not looking longingly at what belongs to them but we're content with what god has provided for us so now our family is not completely wrecked by a father who's trying to climb the ladder of success and neglecting his family it's not driven by a mother whose vanity is wrecking her family because she wants more than what the attention she gets in her family thou shalt not covet thou shalt be content with what you have this commandment protects the family to keep our heart and our hands off the stuff that doesn't belong to to us amen so god wants us to be at peace with who we are and what we have and he putting went to great lengths to write this in a table of stone for moses to teach the people they transient testaments jesus said i've not come to destroy the law i've come to fulfill the law he fulfilled every righteous ordinance of the law he took the law to a higher level where it was not just the prohibition of an act but the managing of an attitude that underlied underlay the act amen honor your father and mother do not commit adultery do not covet amen family matters to god and he formed the family from the beginning but when jesus christ died for our sins was buried in a tomb resurrected on the third day ascended into heaven sent back his spirit on the day of pentecost he then created something new that had never existed in the history of the world we call it the church but the church bride of christ but it is a family of god that's what the apostle paul said you used to be a stranger an alien you were on the outside looking in but now you've been bought you've been brought into the family of god you've been made part of the household of god [Applause] it is not just something to say at atlanta west when we have a class called welcome to the family i know everybody there is not all the way as mature as you are but once they are born again they are born in to the family of god they've got baby steps to take they've got nurturing that they need but they are part of the family of god from day one [Applause] amen welcome to the family of god oh let's thank the lord that he brought us into family 3 14 for this cause i bow my knees unto the father of our lord jesus christ one of several prayers that paul prays in ephesians of whom the whole family and heaven and earth is named what does this mean no matter where they are around the world no matter what nation they're from no matter what cultural background they emerge from no matter their socioeconomic standing in life no matter their intellectual or educational place they are a part of the family of god in those days the jew gentile issue was great in our world racial issues can exist but in the family of god there's only one family there's not a family for one race and a family for another or one culture or one socio-economic strata we all belong to one family of god this is a family of god in heaven and in earth [Applause] now the bible gives lots of examples of what the church is like amen where the body of christ i've taught on that a lot we're the family of god we're born into this family but then there's also this process of being adopted in this family ephesians 1 and 5 ephesians again on family having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by jesus christ amen to himself according to the good pleasure of his will now this adoption process is a little bit more intentional amen i was born into my family and my parents didn't get to choose my genetic makeup they had something to do with it i hope right but they didn't they didn't select it but if you adopt you choose and when god adopts us amen we're born by the spirit and water but we're also chosen of god he predestined us he saw us ahead of time he brought us into the family of god this is a big deal he writes about in ephesians 2 and the time pass your gentiles according to the flesh you're looked down on by the circumcision called uncircumcision you were without christ aliens from the commonwealth strangers from the covenants no hope without god in the world but now those of you who are far off are now brought near or nigh by the blood of christ don't you love singing about thank you for the blood of christ that brought us into this family of god the paul wrote about this in ephesians 3 6 that gentiles should be fellow heirs and of the same body partakers of the promising christ by the gospel he's telling them that they're just like the jews they've got the same inheritance their fellow heirs you thought that that was a rich family over there but now you've been born and adopted into that family so you're now part of the will just like them you've got all the rights of being a son and daughter of god paul gave a lot of practical instructions husbands wives and childrens and servants or you know business owners and and employees but he speaks about husband and wife but then he says this this is a great mystery even husband and wife but i speak he said concerning christ and the church every man shall love his wife even as himself and every wife should reverence her husband salvation this is the most amazing thing in the world to me that when we are saved jesus christ takes all of our dysfunction and he brings us into a family not a perfect people but with perfect potential there's nobody perfect here i told you about my dad my grandfather through the years my dad came and came from a very dysfunctional home his wholeness was because of the church the reason i grew up in a good godly home was because of the gospel my mother's family were not church people at all my dad came from a church background but not apostolic my my mother's family were not church people at all but when god saved my grandfather in a tent meeting in 1935 he brought this dysfunctional guy whose dad had been killed in a motorcycle accident who had a single mom and was helping his mom raise the family now he comes into a family he comes where he can see what a dad is like what a mom is like how a family functions that fathers pray and worship that mothers are modest and godly he's able to see what family is supposed to look like it only happens in the family of god [Applause] thank you lord we are complete in him the bible says ephesians 2 19 the text now therefore you are no more strangers and foreigners but fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of god we are part of god's family in heaven and earth now some people here today watching online might have had the blessing of being raised in a healthy happy home he had a loving godly father provided protected sacrificed loved his wife as christ loved the church fully engaged and involved in your life as a child and thank god if that's the family you grew up in some had a mom who was sweet nurturing guided the home submitted to her husband properly was a wonderful godly mom perhaps she's like the proverbs 31 woman who took care of her home and involved in business too if you were really blessed to have a family like that and siblings who were perfect just like you or something wow congratulations for being raised in a family like that but as we know the family is an endangered species these days if you came from a family as i just described that's a rarity in our world today by the way loving god and going to church together as a family decreases the odds of divorce by many many times i don't have the stats in front of me but i studied them this past week again i've studied them before amen no matter what kind of family you were raised in welcome to a better family the family of god most people i know did not come from ideal families your father may have never been in your life you may have never even known your dad he might have been disconnected abusive unfaithful to your mother your father might have been driven by his own pursuits and work and hobbies and other people symbols of success maybe your mother was neglectful into herself allowing her insecurity to drive her to vanity and success outside the home instead of success first first inside the home maybe that was your family your home may have been shattered by divorce or divorce says your home may have been a place where every form of vice and sin and pornography i've met people that their houses were houses of ill repute by their family trafficked drugs and people in their home and everything was ungodly as you can imagine if your natural family bless you thank god if your natural family was a home that was cursed rather than blessed i want to tell you that you've come to a better family you do not have a choice about the family in which you were raised and you had nothing to do with it they might have been rich or poor you had nothing to do with it educated or ignorant urban or suburban or rural the family into which you were born was beyond your control some of you grew up in homes and your family was foolish some wise some whole some broken and fractured some saved some loss but my message to you today is it doesn't matter where you came from it's what you've come to you have come to and into the family of god welcome to this family why don't you thank the lord thank the lord for what you have not what you don't have thank him for what you've found not what you've lost praise god welcome to the family of god where regardless of where you've been or what you've done you are loved unconditionally welcome to the family of god on your value not for who you are what you've done but because you were created in the image of god and you have intrinsic value just because of that welcome to the family of god where we want to bless your life not curse your life the church is made up of many members who come from non-traditional homes the traditional home that i described before one man one woman married for life with kids and god's people in the bible the bible's such an honest book all the new testament they're people who've come from all kind of backgrounds less than ideal families of people who are widowed or widowers abraham lost his wife there's the widow of zerath if he's lost basically everything there's a widow with two boys he's going to lose it all there's a widow of nain in the new testament the widow who gave her two last pennies in the offering there's naomi and ruth and orfa widowed in the land of moab there's abigail who lost her husband maybe thank god for her she became david's wife there's anna in the new testament who had been married for just a few years her husband died and she lived as a prayer for what prayerful widow for decades and decades the church is made up of orphans like esther who was raised by mordecai cousin or uncle the bible doesn't name a lot of the orphans but it tells us to take care of them in their affliction there are a lot of single parents in the bible mary became a single parent when joseph evidently died probably before jesus began his ministry lots of single parents in the bible people who are trying to go it alone people like mordecai we don't know anything of his wife he raised esther alone the bible is filled with single people people who did not marry people who like jesus for example he thought that he didn't need to be married to be complete that he was completed himself and paul that realized his life mission was better served by singleness in marriage and he focused on what he had a calling rather than what he didn't have a wife you see god provides p support for people who are raised in solitary environments the bible said that god sets the solitary in families there are people like timothy whose dad was not in church he was a greek his mother was a jew i don't know why she married him but she did and timothy was raised in a home with an equal yoke daddy greek mom a jew mom in church dead not when paul writes to timothy he spoke of the faith that was in his grandmother and in his mother he did not write to timothy about the faith that was in his dad his dad evidently was not a man of faith but when timothy found the lord and was brought into the family of god paul became a father in the gospel to him and where he came from that which was fractured he found that which was whole in the family of god welcome to this family you're part of the church that jesus died to buy and then build you're part of a heavenly household where membership matters none of us no one of us deserved to be in this family he loved us when we were dead in our sins and died for us when we were despicable none of us earned the right to be in this family for grace are you saved through faith that not of yourselves it is the gift of god not of works lest any man should boast you did not buy your way into this family you were born into this family by the spirit you were adopted in this into this family by the action of god that made you his own and now parcel doubt his inheritance to you you might have been abandoned disowned neglected or abused your earthly family might have forsaken you when you gave your life to jesus christ your family heritage might have been marred by brokenness and failure and dysfunction your family history might have produced a dismal outlook on life you may really struggle to believe that things are going to get better for you you might have been affected by generational dysfunction but i want to assure you that the bible does not support the idea of a doctrine of a generational curse the bible does not support a generational curse it can be handed down by nurturing you it is not something passed on spiritually every person pays for their own sins and i want to say that right now because some people feel like they're lost in life is to repeat the patterns of the fact the past to go back and be what their fathers and mothers were but i want to tell you that you've broken those cycles you know in a new family you have a heavenly father brothers and sisters in christ and the family of god where the church is like a mother nurturing you into wholeness welcome to this family how do you get in i told you born and adopted the first day of the church when the apostle peter preached that inaugural sermon day of pentecost especially was pointed they felt conviction they asked men and brethren what shall we do so he told them how to get in this family how to get in the church acts 2 38 then peter said unto them repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of jesus christ for the remission of sins and you shall receive the gift of the holy ghost it is god's simple plan of salvation but peter did not stop there he said in verse 39 for the promise is to you and to your children and all that are far off even as many as the lord our god shall call so if god is calling you and you feel that same thing going on in you that they felt on the day of pentecost when they realized they needed to turn from their sins today turn from your sins if you're headed down the right road in the way you're building a life and family stop in your tracks today turn around get on the right road if you're living out the patterns of the past today would you stop what you're doing listen to the word of god and begin to live and lead your family by the bible